Fine Has Unusual Proviso: Bradley to Pay It Himself

When compared to settlements involving some politicians, the $20,000 that Mayor Tom Bradley agreed to pay Thursday to settle a lawsuit over financial reporting violations appears to be a small amount.

In two highly publicized cases, City Councilman Richard Alatorre agreed to pay $141,966 in 1986, and William Bryan, former chairman of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, agreed to pay $290,000 last year for violations of California’s 1974 Political Reform Act.

However, the $20,000 settlement reached by Bradley and the city attorney’s office is far more than the usual $1,000 or $2,000 penalties paid for violations of the state’s financial disclosure law, which is enforced by local prosecutors and the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

Bradley’s $20,000 is also unusual because the total amount will come out of his own pocket. The FPPC traditionally has permitted politicians to pay fines from campaign funds.

Bradley’s payment was far larger than the $7,000 assessed by the FPPC last August against San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos for failing to disclose more than $441,500 in real estate income he earned in 1986 while serving as a state assemblyman.

Other examples of fines assessed recently for violations of political reform laws include:

- Assemblyman Willard H. Murray Jr. (D-Paramount) agreed to pay a fine of $12,500 for not revealing $75,000 in campaign contributions he received in 1986 during his first, unsuccessful race for the seat he now holds.

- Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) agreed to pay a fine of $4,000 for failing to identify 62 contributors who gave his campaign a total of $37,950 in 1985.

- State Board of Equalization member Paul Carpenter agreed to pay a fine of $2,000 for failing to report the expenditure of $5,000 for a last-minute mailing to aid his choice of a successor in a special election in 1987.

Shortly before Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn filed the suit against Bradley, he estimated that more than 100 violations had occurred on Bradley’s financial reports from 1984 to 1988. The maximum penalty for each violation of the law, according to the FPPC, is $2,000, so Bradley theoretically could have faced a $200,000 fine.

But such penalties can be negotiated.

The FPPC had sued Bryan of Sacramento in 1985 for $2.9 million, claiming that he violated “virtually every major provision” of the political reform law, including failure to disclose campaign receipts and sources of personal income. The commission accepted a tenth of that amount.

In the Alatorre case, which accused the Los Angeles city councilman of failing to disclose the source of campaign contributions, Alatorre--like Bradley--reached into his own pocket, but not as deeply. Alatorre personally had to pay only $5,000.

His campaign committees were ordered to pay another $45,000 in fines.

The rest of the Alatorre settlement figure involved refunds to his state campaign committee and to contributors.